Silver

As a period evocation, Christina Yao's ambitious feature debut "Empire of Silver" is flawless, richly and authentically detailed and superbly photographed. But her adaptation of "The Silver Valley," a three-volume book by Cheng Yi, who also worked with Yao on the screenplay, makes for unwieldy melodrama, rather than the enthralling epic it might have been. Set against the turbulent dawning of modern China, the film spans the Boxer Rebellion and the crumbling of the Qing Dynasty. The story centers on Third Master (Aaron Kwok)

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and his wife, Amy Wakeland, have put the home they own in Silver Lake up for one-year lease at $8,500 a month. Built in 2010, the boxy contemporary features an open living room, dining room, media room, office/gym, six bedrooms and five bathrooms in 4,000 square feet of living space. The top-level master suite has views of the reservoir. Concrete counters and a walk-in pantry are among amenities in the sleek kitchen. There are multiple decks. The street just got a fresh coat of slurry, so it would appear the place is ready for new occupants.

Gold may be flashier, but now chemists are giving silver a chance to shine. They've figured out how to make silver nanoparticles that are even more stable than gold nanoparticles. Durable and easy to handle, gold nanoparticles are used for drug delivery, cell imaging and many other applications. Because silver is cheaper and more abundant than gold, it may seem like a more convenient nanomaterial. But unlike gold, silver degrades easily, which makes building stable silver nanoparticles extremely difficult.

Matjames Metson's Silver Lake studio is in a 1930s Art Deco duplex perched atop a steep flight of aging, concrete stairs overlooking a cul-de-sac, which overlooks a hillside, which overlooks a bustling intersection that, from above, appears to be teeming with tiny toy cars and action-figure people. Inside, Metson's dusty, sunlit living room-turned-art studio is also full of tiny treasures. The assemblage artist builds intricate, architectural sculptures, wall hangings and furniture made from his abundant stash of objects, most of which he finds at estate sales.

LONDON - Lashinda Demus of Palmdale won a silver medal in the women's 400-meter hurdles Wednesday night, losing out to a personal-best performance by Russian Natalya Antyukh. Antyukh took the lead around the final curve and held off Demus, who was about a half-stride behind. Antyukh, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, crossed the line in 52.70 seconds. Demus, the current world champion, was timed in a season-best 52.77 seconds. Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic was third in 53.38 seconds, a season-best for her. Georganne Moline of Phoenix finished fifth with a personal-best time of 53.92 seconds, and T'Erea Brown of Miami was sixth in 55.07.

LONDON - U.S. cyclist Sarah Hammer won the silver medal in the women's omnium Tuesday as a heavily British crowd celebrated its sixth cycling gold medal at these Games. Hammer, of Temecula, lost to reigning world champion Laura Trott of Britain by one point in the six-race event, which is making its Olympic debut here. Leading by two points going into the final 500-meter time trial, Hammer finished fourth in the blistering race and ended up second overall. Hammer, 30, is the first American woman to win a silver medal in an individual cycling event.

The Silver Lake Picture Show is back again for its second summer, with a slate of free films to be shown outdoors on a patch of Sunset Boulevard real estate known as Sunset Triangle Plaza. Co-founder Nicholas Robbins says seven movies will be shown this summer, at sunset, every other Thursday. Movie lovers are encouraged to bring their own seating for a series of movies curated around an 1980s and '90s theme. Upcoming films are "Wet Hot American Summer" showing on June 27, "The Sandlot" on July 11, "Zoot Suit" on July 25, "Empire Records" on Aug. 8, "To Wong Foo" on Aug. 28 and "The Princess Bride" on Sept.

Carmelita Jeter couldn't fend off a late burst of speed by Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who repeated as gold medalist in the women's 100 meters Saturday in London. Jeter burst out of the blocks at the front of the pack and was fighting for the lead with Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown when the defending champion surged into the lead and held off the competition at the finish line to win in 10.75 seconds. Jeter finished second in 10.78, followed by Campbell-Brown, who also took third in the 2008 Summer Games.

LONDON -- Jennie Reed got her silver medal in the women's team pursuit Saturday. What she did not get was a chance to stand on the podium. Each team in this particular cycling event has four members, but uses only three at a time. Because the U.S. women were underdogs to the likes of Great Britain, Australia and Canada, they needed to keep fresh legs on the track. So after Reed teamed with Sarah Hammer and Dotsie Bausch to edge Australia in the first round, coaches replaced her with another American -- Lauren Tamayo -- for the gold-medal race.

Justin Yoo , a junior at Harvard-Westlake, won a silver medal in cadet and a bronze medal in Junior epee at the men's fencing World Championships last week in Bulgaria. He's the first U.S. fencer to win individual medals at both the Junior and Cadet World Championship. Kasia Nixon of Los Angeles won a bronze in cadet women's fencing. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

Gregory Kelly is a small-scale historian who is out to memorialize big-time Southern California landmarks, one by one. There's the miniature Watts Towers, an elaborate depiction of Newport Beach's Balboa Pavilion and a proportionally correct model of Silver Lake's Music Box Steps - all tucked in Kelly's crowded Tustin hobby shop. Not bad for a man who had never even built a plastic model airplane before deciding at age 20 to open his own shop in a building owned by his father.

A man was shot and killed Thursday afternoon in South Los Angeles by a gunman who fled in a silver SUV, according to Los Angeles police. Police believe the shooting was gang-related. The suspect, described as a man in his 20s or 30s, shot the victim multiple times before fleeing. The shooting took place about 1:45 p.m. in the 6800 block of 11th Avenue. HOMICIDE REPORT: A story for every victim The victim was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Los Angeles County coroner's office said it had no immediate information about the identity of the victim.

A sliver of a yard can be a powerful thing. Materials & Applications has proved this time and again by collaborating with architects to put up fantastical creations on a 25-by-40-foot gravel yard fronting Silver Lake Boulevard. Past double-take-worthy installations include a golden-leafed Mylar canopy in the shape of a black hole by Ball-Nogues Studio, a motorized vegetative cover that opens and refolds like origami by Eddie Sykes and a sinuous, fire-shaped gazebo made of pressure-laminated panels by Edmund Ming-Yip Kwong.

No injuries were reported Friday morning after a small landslide was triggered at a residential construction site in Silver Lake. The cascade of dirt occurred on a barren, three-home hillside lot in the 1400 block of North Occidental Boulevard at about 8 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. None of the multi-story homes was affected by the flow of dirt, which partially came down onto the street below. Six fire engines were sent to the scene. Aerial television news footage showed construction workers assessing damage to the hillside as a small Bobcat-type excavator worked to dig out the dirt.

Does Adam Silver think we're that dumb? The new NBA commissioner rejected the notion that teams have been tanking this season, telling reporters in Boston on Wednesday that he didn't think coaches or players were intentionally losing games. Uh, duh. It's management that stocks its team's won-loss ledger with Ls. It does so by failing to sign star free agents and trading players such as Paul Pierce, Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner, leaving behind a mishmash of nobodies who increase a team's chance of obtaining a top draft pick by bottoming out in the standings.

Zara Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, won an Olympic equestrian eventing silver medal with the British team Tuesday at the London Games. Germany took the gold with a low score of 133.7, followed by Britain with 138.2 and New Zealand with 144.4. Phillips, who had a penalty-free run Monday on the treacherous cross-country course, cost her team seven points Tuesday as a penalty for knocking down a rail on the second jump and going longer than the 83 seconds allowed for the course.

Martha Schenk and her husband arrived at the Silver fire command post early Friday hoping they could talk their way behind the fire lines and up to what was left of their burned down home. On Wednesday, TV cameras had captured their home, a distinctive two-story dome about a mile down Twin Pines Road, consumed by flames. Now Schenk's husband was on a mission to survey the damage and begin the rebuilding process. Schenk, meanwhile, wasn't sure she wanted to go back. "We've done this so many times," she said.

A welcome dose of snowy weather did not slow U.S. cross-country skier Tatyana McFadden at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics. McFadden won silver in the 1-kilometer sprint Wednesday -- finishing behind Mariann Marthinsen of Norway -- to earn her first medal after taking up the sport less than two years ago. The Russian native, who was born paralyzed from the waist down, was adopted from a St. Petersburg orphanage at age 6 and grew up in the U.S....

William Guarnere didn't have to go to war. At the time of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, he was building tanks at the old Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, a job considered crucial to the war effort and good for an exemption from military service. But Guarnere didn't take it. He enlisted in the Army paratroops on Aug. 31, 1942, and went to battle. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article incorrectly included William Guarnere's late wife, the former Frances Peca, in a list of surviving family members.